2016 Top Ten Gay Romance

by Becky Black

2016 Top Ten Gay Romance brings together the best-selling short stories published by JMS Books that year.From first love to true love, from submission to sensual, from heat to sweet and everything in between, the couples in these stories are sure to keep you turning the pages as you fall in love with them.With stories by Becky Black, T.A. Creech, Rebecca James, Shawn Lane, J.L. Merrow, A.R. Moler, Terry O'Reilly, Michael P. Thomas, Tinnean, and J.D. Walker, this head-over-heels collection goes beyond bedtime reading. Whether happily ever after or happy for now, there’s an ending for everyone in here!Contains the Me and My Big Mouth by Becky Black, Captive by T.A. Creech, Love Lost, Love Found by Rebecca James, Accidentally His by Shawn Lane ,A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips, and Thou by J.L. Merrow, For the Last Time by A.R. Moler, First and Goal by Terry O'Reilly, It's Not Yule, It's Me by Michael P. Thomas, In His Line of Work by Tinnean, and And This is Ed by J.D. Walker.

Genres: Anthologies, M M Romance, Romance, Amazon

382 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 9, 2016

Reviews

[Andi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this anthology. Most of the stories were good and I enjoyed them.

[Lori]

Whoa. The broken hearted rating has been brought out.
I promise I didn't just use it because I felt it needed dusting off instead I've used it because I don't know how to rate this anthology. I has myself a dilemma.

The risk with reading anthologies is in the likelihood of every story being a 4 or 5 heart read. Sometimes a reader can get really lucky and find anthology gold, I know for the most part I expect there is going to be a couple of stories that don't work for me. The problem with this anthology is there was only one story that really did work for me, and that is the JL Merrow one, A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips and Thou. It was a five heart read as far as I was concerned, and that alone made me glad that I'd had the chance to read this anthology. Unfortunately all the other stories rated between a 1 and 3 heart rating for me. Do you see my dilemma? If I average out the ratings it would come up at about 2 hearts.

But...
But... A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips and Thou is not to be tarred with that rating brush. It was a read most excellent, written with the subtle humour and wit that JL Merrow always brings to her writing.

For me the other stories have blurred into one. No characters stood out, no storyline captured my attention. Is it worth buying an anthology just for one story? I don't know - that is your choice to make. For me though, I'm glad I read it. It's also worth noting that, whilst I am a JL Merrow fan, I'm not always the biggest lover of her shorter stories, they don't always click with me. This one, though, really did.

A copy of this book was given in exchange for an honest review.
Review previously at BMBR.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all but the last two stories in this collection. "In This Line of Work" by Tinnean was too complex for me. Perhaps that influenced the next story, "And This is Ed," by J. D. Walker. I just couldn't get into it.
"Me and My Big Mouth" by Becky was a typical workplace romance, but it was funny.
"Captive" by T.A. Creech was an alien romance, a bit unusual.
"Love Lost, Love Found" by Rebecca was a sweet rescue of a homeless man by a firefighter.
In "Accidentally His," a man meets his secret crush in a bus crash. It was a little wordy, but I enjoyed it with some skimming. Ironically, I noticed a missing word or two.
"A Pint of Beer..." by JL Merrow is the reason I picked this up. It challenges stereotypes, and as is usual for the author, it mixes, slang, humor, and clever wordplay with romance. One character's family benignly meddles in his love life.
"For the Last Time" by A.R. Moler spends more time on the journey than the destination. I skimmed. There was also too much graphic sex for me.
"First and Goal" by Terry O'Reilly is a romance dealing with coming out in pro sports.
It's Not Yule, It's Me" by Michael P. is about missed chances and a long-delayed hookup. It was also funny.
Typos I noticed in various stories: some incorrectly placed or missing punctuation, failure to capitalize a couple titles, missing words, sentence fragment, lay for lie.

[Kobie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me and My Big Mouth by Becky Black- enjoyed this. 4 stars
Captive by TA Creech- interesting, sexy- 4 stars
Lovely Lost, Love Found by Rebecca James- warm Christmas story 4 stars
Accidently His by Shawn Lane -already read this, but I liked it.
A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Crisps and Thou by JL Merrow-read this already, too. tad much, really. 3
For the Last Time by AR Moler- loved this. 5
First and Goal by Terry O'Reilly - I liked it, but ending was meh 3
It's Not Yule, It's Me by Michael P. Thomas- adorable and funny and I loved it. 5 stars!
In His Line of Work by Tinnean-- felt like it just got going. 3
And This is Ed by JD Walker- this was a weird one. Not sure I bought the story arc. And how is breaking someone's nose not criminal? 3.5

[cmbookdiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. Thank you.

[Mstay · Rating 4 out of 5]

2016

This was a good year for collections. As usual, the stories spanned a good range making for nice variety. .

[Jeremy Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really enjoyable and brilliant read 📚 👏 👍